In pay television distribution systems, such as direct satellite broadcast systems, television receivers (also known as set-top boxes) often need to exchange data with a central data collection system. For example, a central data collection system often collects pay-per-view ordering information, health and diagnostics information and the like. Typically, a set-top box includes a modem that may communicate with a call processing system through an analog phone line in a home. The set-top box dials the call processing system periodically and exchanges data over the analog phone line. However, an increasing number of users no longer have wired lines at home and, thus it is a problem that set-top boxes are unable to communicate with the call processing system.
The use of wireless data channels has been proposed to cure the communication problem between the set-top box and a call processing system. A set-top box transmits data to the call processing center using a short-message-service (SMS) message. However, short-message-service (SMS) messages are limited to 160 characters. Thus, multiple short-message-service (SMS) messages are needed to communicate data between a set-top box and a call processing system. Most consumers pay for short-message-service (SMS) on a per message basis, and transmitting data over the short-message-service (SMS) system is cost prohibitive given the amount of data that is communicated between a set-top box and a call processing system. Because the set-top box may lack a backchannel, many features, such as pay-per-view movies, are unavailable to a large portion of subscribers.